Confirmed: Intel pulls new SSD firmware due to bricking drives

[Lu(ky]

F Y I you can find new information about the TRIM and other information at AnandTech site -----> H E R E

[StimulatedBoy]

I have a feeling it's either because users didn't wipe old tables with HDDERASE or because they didn't run in IDE mode.

Both 160 GB G2 disks flashed in AHCI mode as soon as the firmware was released and still working fine... Must have been my lucky day

ps. Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

[mrcape]

They are not pulling the firmware because someone didnt bother to read the intructions and use IDE mode (hdderase is not part of the instructions). As I understand the flash process works normally, but problems start after 10 minutes or after some reboots. So the firmware itself seems to be at work there, not the user doing something wrong in the process.

There might be some problem with specific hardware like you say, but you are very much trying to shift the blame away from Intel. It's way too early to point any fingers but given the fact that this is the second time something is funky with their firmware I wouldnt be suprised if Intel did something wrong here.

I just hop ehtey fix it soon. Maybe Im just getting used to the speed but my G2 doesnt seem that fast anymore.

True, maybe poor instructions then. I have no reason to shift blame, I could care less about intel's reputation and I agree they are probably wrong in some way.

I personally would never have flashed the FW without a thorough wipe. I had two G1 drives for a long time and am used to wiping with secure erase to refresh on a regular basis. It seemed like a no brainer to wipe before this update.

[Etihtsarom]

I have a feeling it's either because users didn't wipe old tables with HDDERASE or because they didn't run in IDE mode.

I got a nice write bump -

Mr Cape, what kind of writes did you get before? And this is
80G or 160? My write numbers were 87 / 87 /66 and remained the same. No bricking...yet? Cross fingers.

[RaZz!]

i've never seen that much firmware issues as with the current gen of ssds. worrying they're not able to get this crap under control.

[Roger_D25]

RagzaroK - I get very similar results to what you mentioned in your post above (88-86-74) so I think your fine (by the way I'm running the 80GB G2). I'm not sure what drive he used for that benchmark but many 160GB G2's now have write speeds above 100MB/s after the firmware flash.

[spytech]

I have a feeling it's either because users didn't wipe old tables with HDDERASE or because they didn't run in IDE mode.

I got a nice write bump -

i also would like to know if this is with an 80g or 160g? this is what i got with my 80g after the firmware update.

[jcool]

No issues here.

[mrcape]

i also would like to know if this is with an 80g or 160g? this is what i got with my 80g after the firmware update.

Hi it's 160gb. The increase is about the same as you got - from around 100 to 110.

[saaya]

So the first G2 firmware was bad, and now this? WTF Intel?

yeah, weird isnt it? when intel entered the ssd segment i hoped they'd bring proper intel quality to ssd's...
they did push perf up, but at high prices, and they stumbled over trim just like all the other ssd makers, and their firmware problems seem at least as problematic as those of other ssd makers... actually this is the second time intel ssd firmware bricks ssd's while i havent heard of any other ssd maker having a similar problem?

[AceBaran]

Still running ok ! Altho since ive upgraded.. my ssd makes a clicking sound when booting >_<

[Telperion]

Say what you will about OCZ and their issues, as best I know their firmwares haven't consistently bricked the SSDs.

Intel needs to get their act together, I've been ready to buy one of these G2 drives since launch and these consistent issues keep me from getting one.

[zalbard]

The problem seems Windows 7 related. Watch out and don't flash.

[rkgriffin]

Looks like I got lucky. Running Windows 7 and having no issues with the firmware update.

I normally run in ACHI mode but switched to IDE, ran firmware, and switched back to ACHI before going back into Windows 7. It installed a driver and rebooted. All good.

Hope they get it fixed for everyone having issues.

[-=DVS=-]

I was running in AHCI mode and with overclocked system when i flashed, SSD is still running fine Windows 7 , there must be something else that bricked the drives for others , if firmware is bad it should brick all the drives not select few.
My bet is on incompatible hardware software combination.

[Etihtsarom]

Well I dunno wth this tish is but a Kingston SSD Now 64GB bricked on me. I just installed 7 on it, played around a little, the laptop went to sleep, and when I go to wake it up, it asked for a freaking hdd password. I of course never flashed any firmware or put any pw on the hdd in the bios. The drive is now unusable, can't reformat or do anything with it...lol

[mrcape]

What win7? RTM, Beta, Retail?

[posershadow]

I was running in AHCI mode and with overclocked system when i flashed, SSD is still running fine Windows 7 , there must be something else that bricked the drives for others , if firmware is bad it should brick all the drives not select few.
My bet is on incompatible hardware software combination.

Agreed. All the intel drives that are produced are exactly the same. They all came with the same firmware, same hardware, there is no reasoning that can explain why some of us have working drives and others have claimed to brick theirs. It is obviously not intel's fault. I bet you put any of these supposed bricked drives in a system such as mine and they will work just fine. It's probably the motherboard BIOS that is screwing up the booting process, either the users fault with settings or just a BIOS that isn't compatible on maybe a laptop or something that doesn't let you choose from IDE or AHCI, or people don't know how to turn the AHCI driver on if they switched from IDE.

[JohnZS]

It would be interesting to know whether those who "bricked" their SSD's were running on Marvell, JMicron, or nForce based AHCI/SATA controllers

[AceBaran]

Well im using JMicron.. and so far it runns fine, beter then fine to be honoust after the updat my index score went up from 7.6 to 7.8 !

[ziddey]

so no trim in ide mode right?

[Marios]

This is an example about the trim operation the way I get it.
Suppose we have a completely full SSD.
User: delete entire disk

Without Trim
SSD: Has no idea the SSD contains no valid data. It only changed the Mft.

User: Write on sectors 2000-4000.
File system: Write on allocation units a to b
SSD:
1. Performs a search in it's volatile memory where the file tanslation layer table resides to get the blocks and pages that correspond to allocation units a to b.
2. In case there are blocks that contain pages with allocation units out of the a to b range (fragmentation), the SSD controller needs to write those pages on an empty block. But no block is empty. Though an SSD reserves some blocks in advance to overcome situations like this. In this case the data is written on a reserved block or in the memory.
3. The SSD controller applies current to corresponding blocks to wipe them out.
4. Marks the blocks and pages in the a to b range and writes the new data. Then it writes the old data from the memory or the reserved blocks.

With trim
OS Trim to SSD: No valid data on disk (SSD may perform a wipe operation on all blocks at any time)
SSD: Updates the file tanslation layer table to reflect the situation where all blocks contain no valid data and the garbage collection mechanism can perform a wipe operation at any time lazily on all blocks. It should also change the metadata of all pages and blocks to reflect the new situation as soon as possible.

User: Write on sectors 2000-4000.
File system: Write on allocation units a to b
SSD:
1. Checks whether there are enough corresponding blocks that are already erased.
2. In case some needed blocks were not already wiped out earlier it performs an erase block operation
3. marks the wiped out blocks and pages in the a to b range and writes the new data.

[WeaponX]

soooo...when's intel gonna release this fixed firmware thingymahbobber?